


In the Shadow of Kings

by beautifulandsweet



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:47:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25039474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beautifulandsweet/pseuds/beautifulandsweet
Summary: Goh has had a rough go of things lately, between losing his Magikarp and the incident with Slowking. He tries to fix things himself, but his friends are there to help whether he wants them to or not.
Relationships: Gou | Goh/Satoshi | Ash Ketchum
Comments: 8
Kudos: 134





	In the Shadow of Kings

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Español available: [A la sombra de los reyes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27030775) by [deathangel91](https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathangel91/pseuds/deathangel91)



> I recently started watching Pokemon Journeys, and I have to say, I adored episode 26, which has to be the funniest episode in the history of Pokemon. For about a week after I saw it, I kept remembering bits of it that had me busting out laughing. That said, I noticed a few darker notes under the hilarity, and this fic is just an exploration of that.

I.

Goh was quiet on the train back to Vermilion. He kept staring out the window and sighing, brushing at his eyes every so often. Ash hugged Pikachu closer as he watched with growing concern. 

“What do you think happened to him?” Goh asked. 

Ash cringed. Earlier, after Magikarp disappeared from the high-jump contest, Ash had joked that he must have rocketed up into space and become a star. Goh had not been amused.

“Well, what goes up, must come down, right?” Ash said. “He must have come down somewhere else. Probably another lake with lots of other Magikarp.” 

Goh’s head whipped toward him. “But what if he didn’t? What if he came down in the middle of a town, or a desert, or someone’s fish fry…” Goh’s face turned green at the thought. “He could be hurt or in trouble, and I would have no idea.”

Ash shook his head. “No way. Your Magikarp is bigger and stronger than any other I’ve ever seen. Plus, we did all that training. If it got into trouble, it would just jump away again!”

Goh just shook his head and returned to looking out the window. “This is my fault,” he muttered. “I shouldn’t have tried that trick with the weights.”

Ash wanted to say something, anything, to take away the tears that were brimming in those blue eyes. He also knew from experience that losing a Pokemon was a wound that would take time to heal, and nothing he said could make things right. Not right now.

“I really think he’s okay,” Ash said. “Right, Pikachu? Raboot?” 

Both Pokemon perked up, startled by the question, but when Goh glanced over to see their reactions, Pikachu and Raboot both nodded. Raboot even scooted a little closer to Goh, as if to offer his support. 

“I hope so,” Goh said, and that would have to be enough for now.

II.

“Have you seen Goh?”

Chloe glanced up from the bowl she had been preparing for Yamper. The puppy Pokemon nipped at Ash’s heels as he passed the breakfast table, but Ash, unbothered, just tucked his ankles up for a moment before returning to his own mountain of a breakfast. 

“I think he left early this morning,” Chloe said. “I thought you would be going with him. Aren’t you two attached at the hip?”

Ash slumped. It was true that the pair had been spending most of their waking hours together ever since they started as research fellows, but since losing Magikarp, Goh had been slipping away on his own. He had missed a couple meals, and just the other night, Professor Cerise had scolded Goh for staying out until dusk without letting anyone know where he was. Goh had apologized but did not offer any explanation as to where he had been or what he had been doing. 

It reminded Ash of the time in Hoenn when Raboot kept disappearing at night. The thought made him nervous.

Chloe mistook his silence for taking offense. “It’s not a bad thing!” she said, waving her hands. “I’m really glad that you’re friends. Goh needed to talk to other people our age, you know? If it was up to him, he’d still be glued to his phone every minute of the day.”

Ash chuckled despite himself. Goh was still glued to his phone, if only to research on the go, but he understood what Chloe was saying. “It’s okay,” he said. “I’m just worried about him. I just wish I could help him get out of this funk.”

Chloe topped Yamper’s breakfast with his favorite berries and offered it to her Pokemon. “Well, if anyone can, it would be you.” But, just to nudge Ash in the right direction, Chloe pulled her own phone from her backpack and dialed the all-too-familiar number. 

“Who are you calling?” Ash asked. 

Chloe shook her head as the call connected. “Hey, Goh. Where are you?” Because it was Chloe, Goh answered right away. They had been friends long enough that Goh knew better than the pull the lone wolf act with her. “Okay. Stay there, okay?”

“Uh, okay?” Goh sounded uncertain. “Hey, don’t you need to go to schoo--”

Chloe hung up. Of course she had to go to school, and she had no intention to be late. Instead, she texted an address to Ash’s phone. “Ask Rotom to take you there. Let me know how it goes later, okay?”

Ash grinned. “Thanks, Chloe!”

Ash had no problem locating Goh down by Vermilion Port-- partly thanks to Chloe’s help, and partly because of the yelling.

“I was just asking a question!” Goh said, even as a tall fisherman gave him a firm shove toward land.

“Just a question!” the fisherman shouted. “You’re just asking for a foot up! Cheating real fishermen of their rightful prize! Get out of here!”

Beside Goh, Raboot growled and lifted a foot as if to kick at the fisherman, but Goh stopped the Pokemon with a hand on his shoulder and a quick shake of the head. “Come on.” He turned away. “We don’t need your help, anyway!”

Then Goh spotted Ash watching from the end of the pier. Goh hesitated, but with the fisherman still storming behind him, he joined Ash on land. “Chloe sent you, didn’t she?” he asked with a defiant glare.

Ash held his hands up in surrender. “Hey, I’m not here to stop you… from doing whatever it is you’re doing.” Goh stomped past him, and Ash fell into step behind him. “What are you doing, anyway? Getting into fights first thing in the morning?” 

Goh cast a furious look back toward the water. “I was just asking if that guy had heard of any big Magikarp in the area. That’s all.”

Everything clicked, and Ash laughed. “Well, no wonder he got mad. Didn’t you hear about the fishing contest? There’s a prize for the biggest catch. He probably thought you wanted to cheat or something.”

Goh stopped. A look of frustration crumpled his face. “How did you know that?”

“I don’t know. I, uh, talk to people?”

Goh huffed and ran a hand through his hair. “Of course.” He turned back to Ash, only for Ash to have disappeared. “Huh? Where’d he go?”

“Over here!” Ash called. He had doubled back to the fisherman. Goh stared as Ash approached the man with a big grin and talked to him with arms waving wildly. When Ash returned a few minutes later, the fisherman waved them both off with a booming laugh and a thumbs-up.

“What in the world did you say to him?” Goh asked, in awe at the difference.

“I just explained the situation,” Ash said, “about your missing Magikarp. He hasn’t seen any large Magikarp, but guess what? He’s seen a lot of Slowpoke lately.”

“Slowpoke?” Goh shook his head. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“It doesn’t, but it’s weird, right? When was the last time you saw Slowpoke in Vermilion City?”

Goh had to admit that it was strange. “Maybe we should tell Professor Cerise.”

Ash put a hand on Goh’s shoulder, gently steering him back toward the lab. “Yeah. Let’s grab some breakfast, and then we’ll go see him, okay?”

Back at the lab, Goh found an unused computer and started accumulating data on Slowpoke sightings. Chrysa and Ren offered him encouraging smiles but left him to his own devices. He appreciated that. After Chloe and Ash meddling this morning, he just wanted to be alone for a while.

Except he wasn’t alone, not really. Raboot idly spun around in a desk chair beside him. 

“If you’re bored, you can go play with everyone else in the park,” Goh said. Raboot ignored him and continued to spin. Even a few weeks ago, Goh would have been devastated by his partner ignoring him, but now he recognized Raboot’s odd way of showing support.

“Thanks,” he said, and he returned his attention to the map in front of him. 

A small part of him felt guilty for spending time on anything other than searching for Magikarp. But Slowpoke lived near water, so there was a chance… Goh knew it was stretching to hope that searching for one would lead to the other. 

The truth was that he needed a break from the constant guilt he felt for losing the Pokemon. They had all worked so hard. Magikarp had seemed so excited, and Goh had been so confident in his training method. The worst part was that Goh still did not have an explanation for what had happened.

At least he could try to explain the sudden appearance of so many Slowpoke in the area.

“So I see you made it back.” Without invitation, Chloe pulled up a chair and dropped a pile of papers on the desk beside Goh. He jumped. He hadn’t heard her come in. “Here’s your homework.”

“Not that I asked for it,” Goh muttered.

“What was that?” Chloe cut him with a glare. It was easy to see where Yamper got his attitude. “So, did you learn anything?”

Goh gestured at the screen in front of him. “I think there’s a mass migration of Slowpoke. Your dad wants us to go out and see what might be causing it.” 

“That has to be the slowest migration in history,” Chloe said, “but that’s not what I meant. Any word about Magikarp?”

Goh flinched. He had not told Chloe why he had gone down to the piers, but she was smart enough to figure it out. “No. Nothing.”

Chloe patted Raboot on the head. To Goh’s surprise, Raboot nuzzled closer to her. Since when did those two get along? “That’s okay,” she said. “You’ll find him.”

“You think so?” Goh asked.

Chloe heard the doubt in his voice and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I bet he misses you. Right, Raboot?” Raboot turned away without responding. “Hey! You’re supposed to say yes.”

Goh laughed. He picked up the pile of papers. “Thanks, Chloe.”

“No problem.” She stood up. “You know that we’re all here for you, right? You’re not alone.”

Goh stared at her for a moment before nodding. “Right.” 

Just then, Ash crashed through the door. “Goh! I found someone who’s willing to take us on a boat out to that island you were talking about!”

Looking back and forth between Ash, Chloe, and Raboot, Goh let the knowledge sink in: he really wasn’t alone. He would find Magikarp, and he had friends who would help him. This new sense of certainty lit a fire inside him. “Okay. Let’s go.”

III. 

The Slowking incident left Goh shaken. Ash expected Goh to go back to normal after the return of Magikarp. Instead, Goh was more withdrawn than ever when they got back to the lab. For the next two days, he barely left the park, spending most of his time down by the pond with Magikarp and the other Pokemon. 

Chloe seemed to blame Ash for the change. “Just what happened out there?” she asked after Goh skipped breakfast again.

Ash shrugged. The incident with Slowking’s crown had left his memories muddled, but he thought things had turned out fine. True, Goh had not caught a Slowpoke, but no one had been hurt. Magikarp returned as if by magic. “I thought he’d be happier,” Ash admitted.

“Go fix it.” Chloe stared out the window in the direction of the park. “If he’s feeling better when I get back from school, I’ll bake some cookies to celebrate.” 

Ash knew a bribe when he heard one, but he also knew that Chloe’s cookies were worth the effort. “I’ll do my best.”

Goh couldn’t stop thinking about Slowking's crown. The incident had freaked him out. The last time Ash had started acting strangely like that, he had gotten really sick before Goh realized something was wrong with him. This time, Goh had realized something was off right away, but he still couldn’t do anything to help him. If Slowking hadn’t come back and made things right…

“King Ash” had been kind of scary. He kept talking about “compliance” and even tried to “evolve” Goh with a Shellder. Never mind that nothing would have happened. It had still been upsetting to see his friend disappear in an instant and be replaced with such a hard-headed weirdo. 

Goh kept replaying the events over in his mind. What if Ash really felt like that, and the Slowking’s crown had just shown his true colors? Aside from the change in personality, Ash had been almost… flirty. He definitely said some things that made Goh blush to think about, like asking Goh to “walk beside” him and be part of his “beloved family.”

Goh scrunched his hair in both hands and let out a frustrated groan. “I don’t know what to think!” 

In front of him, Magikarp rested on the edge of the pond with his fins on the bank. As Chloe had predicted, Magikarp seemed to have missed Goh and had been sticking close to him for the last two days. Goh’s second Magikarp, the smaller normal-sized one, also lingered nearby. They stared at him-- unblinking, vaguely confused. It startled a chuckle out of Goh when he realized that he probably had the same look on his face.

“I just don’t know,” he admitted to Magikarp. The whole thing had dredged up a lot of complicated emotions. Confusion, trying to understand what had happened. Inadequacy, since he hadn’t been able to put a stop to it-- Ash had just been so much quicker than him. Confusion, whether Ash had meant anything by the flirting. Sad, because he probably didn’t see Goh that way at all; hadn’t mind-controlled Ash tried to change him? Confusion, because what way did Goh want him to feel?!

Goh flopped back in the grass with another groan. He knew that he had not been a good friend lately. As usual, he was caught up in his own troubles. He had isolated himself, even though he had such great friends who had been there for him anyway. Goh still felt like he had to do everything on his own, but when it had been up to him to help Ash, he had failed. Just like he failed Magikarp.

“I can’t do anything right,” he muttered to himself.

“That’s not true.”

Goh jerked upright at the same time that Ash sat on the grass beside him. Pikachu chirped a hello before engaging Raboot in an impromptu game of tag. Goh watched them dash off before he realized that Ash was staring at him.

“You know that’s not true.” Ash grabbed Goh’s hand and squeezed it. “You’re awesome, Goh.”

Goh was pretty sure that his face had caught on fire. “Oh, uh, thanks?”

“How’s Magikarp doing?” Ash patted both the giant and the normal-sized fish. 

Goh smiled. On that point, at least, he was reassured. “Totally normal. I don’t think we’ll ever know what happened, but he’s as healthy as ever.” 

“That has to bother you,” Ash guessed, “the not knowing, I mean.”

Goh shrugged. “Not really. That’s just part of what it means to be a researcher. There are always going to be more questions.” 

Ash shook his head. “So what is bothering you?” When Goh shrunk again, Ash pressed, “No, really. Tell me what’s wrong, and maybe we can fix it.”

Goh tried to sift through his thoughts. He was upset by a whole lot of things, but if he had to boil it down… “Hey, Ash? After everything that’s happened… has your opinion about me changed at all?”

Ash paused. It was obvious that was not the question he had anticipated, and it took him a minute to respond. “I don’t think so. Why? What happened that would change my opinion?”

Goh hesitated, unsure if he should risk their friendship by bringing it up. “When you were wearing Slowking’s crown…”

“Oh, I don’t remember what happened then,” Ash said. “I guess the Shellder venom kind of took over, huh? Wasn’t it like that for you?”

“For me?”

“Well, it chomped down on your head, too, remember?”

Goh thought back. The crown had been on his head, too, hadn’t it? He tried to remember how he had reacted and came up with… nothing. Huh. “So… you don’t blame me for not getting it off you?”

Ash shook his head. “All’s well that ends well.”

“And you don’t want to… change me?” Goh asked. He cringed at how needy that sounded.

Ash scrunched up his face, looking pained for a minute. Goh almost asked him if he felt sick before Ash suddenly sat upright. “Oh! I remember now. Slowbro, right?”

Goh nodded. “I know it’s stupid to be upset by that, and I know it wasn’t really you talking. It’s just… there have been a lot of people who have told me that I needed to… be different.” 

His parents wanted him to go out and make friends, his teachers had wanted him to sit still in class and stop asking so many questions, and practically every one of his peers had laughed at his ambitions. Someone was always telling him that he was either too much or not enough. Ash had never been one of those people.

Until, maybe, now.

Ash considered his answer with care. “No. I don’t want you to be different.” He offered Goh a dimmed version of his usual smile. “I like you the way you are.”

Goh could feel his face heating up again. He stared at his hands folded on his lap and quietly muttered something.

Ash tilted his head. “What did you say?”

“I said, I like you the way you are, too.” Goh could almost feel tears prickling the corners of his eyes, and he did his best to hold them back. “It scared me when you changed so suddenly like that.”

Ash’s smile visibly brightened. “Oh. Is that it?”

Goh huffed. “Yes, that’s it.”

Ash laughed. “I mean, I’m glad that you care about me and all, but chances are pretty low that something like this will happen again. Now we know about Slowking’s crown, we can just avoid it from now on. Deal?”

Ash made everything sound easy. “Yeah, okay.”

“Great!” Ash jumped up and then yanked Goh up by his arm, too. “Now come on. Like you said, there are always more questions, and it’s our job to find some answers.”

Goh nodded. That was certainly true. “Okay. What’s next?”


End file.
